11/22/2014

Book Haul || November 2014

So, it's that time again. Book haul time. I know that November isn't exactly over yet, but I know that I will not be buying any more books this month. The reason for that is, that I'm basically out of money. I have a little left for the rest of the month, and that's going towards a movie ticket so I can go see Mockingjay next week.

So, this month I held back on the book buying a little bit. I only bought six books, which is a lot better than the last two months. In this haul I've got a mixture of eBooks, physical books, and books I got from the library. All in all I have ten books to show you guys, so here we go.

Bought, physical books:

I haven't bought any physical book since I got my Kobo, so I thought it was time to do just that. I've been lusting after My True Love Gave to Me ever since it came out, so why not get it? And the second book is Gracefully Grayson by Amy Polonsky. This book sounds so interesting, and I can't wait to read it.

Library Picks:

Next up I got two books from the library this month (not including a ton of books for school). I've already read Y: The Last Man, and I'm very much looking forward to reading the The Titan's Curse. I set The Titan's Curse on hold sometime last month, but it didn't arrive at my local library until about three days ago.

Bought, eBooks:

I got four eBooks this month, and I've actually already read three of them. I've been trying to cut down on my eBook buying, and I think it's been working. Compared to last month where I probably bought around ten, this is pretty mild. 

Freebies, eBooks:

Last, but definitely, not least, I have two freebies. I have a tendency to just browse the section on Kobo with all of the free ebooks, and sometimes I come back from that browse with a ton of new ebooks. However, this month I only found free eBooks that I thought I'd get. Well, not really. I actually got a shit-ton of free classics this month as well, but I don't really feel like showing all of them

So that was my November book haul. Did you get any cool books this month?

11/16/2014

Review || Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger

Title: Almost Like Being in Love
Author: Steve Kluger
Format: Ebook
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT
Rating: 
Summary:
A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.

Flash forward twenty years.

Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown. 

Told in narrative, letters, checklists, and more, this is the must-read novel for anyone who's wondered what ever happened to that first great love.

Thoughts:
Before I even get into my thoughts about this book, I need to say this. I read this as an ebook, which I now realize was a bit of a mistake. The formatting gets screwed up some, and it can make it a little annoying and hard to read. Therefore, if you want to read this, I would recommend picking it up as a physical copy.

Almost like being in love is a story about first love. Is is a bit cliché? Yes, it is, but that's the beauty of the story. The author took a bunch of different clichés, mixed them all together, and this is the result. It’s all about Travis Puckett, the nerd, and Craig McKenna, the jock, who fall head over heels in love in their senior year of high school. This book is funny, sarcastic, and so very quotable. This book has a very romantic comedy feel.

“It doesn't matter what people thinks of you as long as you know that your heart and head are in the right place.” 

The beginning of the book is so beautiful. We get to see the two of them fall so desperately in love and how that changes them, and I love that. It almost made me want to go out and fall in love.
The middle of the book was a little slow at places. At times I just wanted the story to move on a bit, despite the book still being adorable and funny.  

The ending of this story bothered me a bit - it just felt completely anti-climatic, and I actually had to re-read the ending, because I couldn’t believe that was the ending. It just fell a little flat for me. However, I really enjoyed the epilogue, and I feel like the story got the right ending, that all the characters deserves, after all.

I really adore both of the characters. Travis was really all over the place, and I thought it was fantastic. He was such an interesting guy, and I loved it when we saw the story from his point of view. Not to say, that I didn’t like Craig’s POV, but I did enjoy Travis’ just a bit more. You really grow to love both main characters, and you don’t want to part with any of them. I really love the two of them together. As friends they're sweet, but as lovers they are amazing.

“Falling hard for somebody makes you do things you never thought you'd do before. Like pulling off an A in History or finally facing the truth about yourself” 

This book made me smile, laugh, and it even made me cry a bit. It’s a lovely story, and I would definitely recommend you pick this one up if you feel like reading something sweet and funny.

11/11/2014

Top ten tuesday || Characters you wish would get their own book

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week is all about those side characters and minor characters who we love and want to see more of. So the top ten characters we wish would get their very own book. For this, I don't actually have ten characters, but six, and a bonus one.

Haymitch from The Hunger Games. I love this dude, and I would absolutely love to have a book from his point of view. A book about his backstory and his time in the games. Yes, I know that we get a little backstory on him in the books, but I can't help but want more.

Reagan from Fangirl. This girl is one of my favorite characters I’ve read this year. Actually I was a little more interested in hearing about her life than I was Cath’s. I really find her character interesting, and I would love to get something from her perspective.

Noah Van Tassel from Crane & Raven. Oh Noah. I adore this man, and would love to get something from his perspective - it doesn’t have to be an entire novel, but maybe just a short story. Really, I just want more Noah.

Ridley Peolte from Raven. This man is so incredibly frustrating, and such and asshole, but I think he's a fantastic character. I really do have a love/hate relationship with this dude. I think an entire book from his point of view would be completely awesome (we do get a bit of his POV in Raven, but I would love to see more.)


Viktor Krum from The Harry Potter series. Now, I haven’t actually read Goblet of Fire, but Viktor is one of my biggest fictional crushes, and I just think his his story would be very interesting. I want backstory, and I want his future - basically everything I can get my hands on.

Nymphadora Tonks from The Harry Potter series. Really. She’s just one of those people who I want to see much more of (and yes, I realize that I haven’t read a book where she is in, but I’m going to make it count anyway)



Bonus character:

Jace Holden - Something Like Summer. Now I absolutely love this character, and he is practically perfect. The reason I don't really want to include him is because he actually has his very own book. I didn't know this when I first read Something Like Summer, and after that it was really all I wanted. Then after a quick search, I found out that he has an entire book from his POV called Something Like Autumn - A book that I sadly haven't read yet, and that's kind of the reason why he's included a little bit anyway.

11/10/2014

|| 10 books I need to finish before 2015

The year is almost over - I say almost, when in fact there’s more like a month and a half left. But still, it’s time to start thinking about which books I want to read before the year is over and done. I have chosen 5 physical books, and 5 ebooks, all ten book are some that I own. This is not included the books that are already on my November TBR. So, without further ado, these are the 10 book I need to finish before 2015 - or you can just call it: My End of the Year TBR.


Delirium - Lauren Oliver. 
A book that I’ve had since Christmas last year. I specifically asked my mom for this one, but I just never got around to reading it. So, this is why I want to read it now. Preferably before Christmas eve - but that is optional.

Hate List by Jennifer Brown. 
Another book I’ve had for some time. I bought it on a whim, because I needed another book to get free shipping. It does sound interesting, so that’s why it is on my list.

The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan. 
A book I bought for some birthday money last year. It sounds very interesting, and I have actually picked it up before, but I never started reading it, because I wasn’t really in the mood for this kind of book. But I’ll hope to read it before this year is out.

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover. 
I’ve read one book by her before (Slammed), which I didn’t really like. But I’ve heard so many great things about this one, so I’ll give it a shot.

Landline by Rainbow Rowell. 
I bought this when I was in Berlin back in July. It’s the only Rainbow Rowell book I haven’t read, and if I do read it this year, I will have read all of her books within one year. That would be pretty awesome I think.



Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis. 
A book that that’s been  raved about on ‘Tea Time with Team Epic Reads’, so I need to pick this up soon.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas. 
People have been raving about this book, - and series, so I thought it would be about time that I got started on this. Also, it does sound really interesting. 

Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters. 
I started reading this earlier this year, but I didn’t get very far. Not because it wasn’t good, but once again I wasn’t really in the mood for it. 

Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher. 
This sounds like such a sweet read, and I really want to get to it sooner rather than later.

The Conduit by Stacey Rourke. 
I’ve read Crane, and Raven by this author before, and I absolutely loved them. Her writing is really good, so I thought I’d read her debut novel.

Do you have any books you need/want to read before the year is over?

11/09/2014

Book tag || TBR Tag


I saw this tag over on Dana's blog some time ago. I've thought about doing it, and I finally decided to just give it a go. I was not tagged by anybody (that I know of), but oh well. The tag is created by Dana from Danasquare and Rachel from A Perfection Called Books.
 Also, I realize that I should probably start writing up reviews, but I just haven't been able to get my thought down in writing. They will be here - eventually.

How do you keep track of your TBR pile?
I used to use notebooks, but I have a tendency to throw those away, so that didn't work at all. I've tried to use Goodreads, but that ended in an even bigger mess than the notebooks. Finally I just made a document in google docs, and that's been working amazing for me.

Is your TBR mostly print or ebook?
I'm not really sure. I think most of my TBR books are actually ebooks. However, that might be because that thing is still new to me, so I went a little ebook crazy, and therefore I have a ton of unread books on that thing.

How do you determine which book from your TBR to read next?
It all depends on my mood, really. I just pick up whatever sounds good at the moment.


A Book That's Been On Your TBR List The Longest?
Oh dear, that's a good question. Not that long ago, I wiped my entire goodreads to read list (mostly in anger - there was way too much shit on it), so I can't really remember when it comes to that. But I think Now You See Me by S. J. Bolton is one of the books that's been on my list for a million years - like since 2011. Whoops!




A Book You Recently Added To Your TBR
Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil. I was just browsing around the internet and somehow this popped up, and it sounded really interesting. So, I thought why not, and threw it onto my TBR list - both on my google doc and my goodreads (this is serious business people)



A Book In Your TBR Strictly Because Of Its Beautiful Cover
Do I think this cover is beautiful? Yes. Does the plot sound interesting? Why yes it does. But honestly, the cover drew me to this one. I was just browsing around goodreads, as one tend to do, I saw this cover, and I knew I had to have this book - plot be damned. Sadly it's not in my possession just yet, but I hope it will be very soon.




A Book On Your TBR That You Never Plan on Reading
It'll probably end up being one of the free ebooks I got when I first got my eReader. Not that I don't think they'll be good, but because some of them don't really interest me all that much. But I have a tendency to download books to my eReader anyway if they are free.


An Unpublished Book On Your TBR That You’re Excited For
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. I'm ridiculously excited for this book. April 2015 is so far away, and I can't wait for this to hit the shelves. Also honorable mention to None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio, which I'm just as excited about, maybe actually a little more than the other one. Nonetheless, I really, really want to read both of these book.


A Book On Your TBR That Basically Everyone’s Read But You 
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. I know, I'm sorry. I feel like everyone and their mother has read this one, and I'm sitting in the background trying not to get spoiled. I have the book, I just haven't been in the mood for it. However, I will eventually pick it up. 

A Book On Your TBR That Everyone Recommends To You
Well, again I think that would be Throne of Glass once again. It's a book that people are basically throwing at me, telling me that I need to read it. Again, I will get to it at some point. I hope.

A Book On Your TBR That You’re Dying To Read
One book? Well, I'm mostly dying to read all of them, but one book in particular would be Something Like Autumn, the 3rd book in the Seasons series by Jay Bell. I just need to read this book soon. Actually I need to get my hands on the book first, but then I need to read it.




How many books are on your Goodreads TBR shelf?
It currently has 38 book on it. Again, I don't really like using goodreads for things like that, because I know that I'll end up with a million books there in no time. It will be chaos. Chaos I tell you! However, I do use it sometimes if I just don't want to forget about a book, and don't want to find my google document.

So, that was the TBR Tag. I'm not actually going to tag anybody, actually I think most people have done it by now - I'm just late. But if you've done it, please link it below, because I'd love to see what you've written.

11/04/2014

Top Ten Tuesday || Books I want to re-read


Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week we are talking about the book we would want to re-read. Now I'm not really a person to re-read, so these will be my picks if I did re-read books.




Do you re-read books? What are some books that you would like to re-read?


11/01/2014

#ReadingCram Chills And Thrills Read-A-Thon || Wrap-Up










So, the time has come to wrap-up this read-a-thon. And I must say: I failed tremendously. I read one book and then I started another one. That's about it. I was hoping to at least finish the second book, however life got in the way, and my teaching took up so much time. Nonetheless, I'm happy that I did this, and I did participate in a ReadingSprint, and won a price. So yeah, I did do a little more than "just" reading.


I finished Raven by Stacey Rourke, and I absolutely adored it. It's the sequel to Crane, which I read earlier this month, and I also did a review of it. I'll try to have a review of Raven up as soon as possible.

After reading Raven, I started reading The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. I only got 50 pages into that, but so far I'm enjoying the book. Hopefully I get to finish it soon.




Did you participate in the read-a-thon? How did you do?